Aidan Gomez: What No One Understands About Foundation Models | E1191

Aidan Gomez is the Co-founder & CEO at Cohere, the leading AI platform for enterprise, having raised over $1BN from some of the best with their last round pricing the company at a whopping $5.5BN. Prior to Cohere, Aidan co-authored the paper “Attention is All You Need,” which introduced the groundbreaking Transformer architecture. He also collaborated with a number of AI luminaries, including Geoffrey Hinton and Jeff Dean, during his time at Google Brain, where the team focused their efforts on large-scale machine learning. ----------------------------------------------- Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (00:45) Childhood & Backround (04:29) Is More Compute the Only Path to Better Performance? (08:07 ) Can Anyone Afford to Stay in the AI Race Besides Tech Giants? (13:44) Is AI Heading Toward a Race to the Bottom? (16:55) Will Companies Keep Building Their Own Chips? (18:30) Is Model Progression Outpacing Compute Advancement? (19:41) Early Challenges in Accessing Compute Chips (23:48) Are We Underestimating the Short-Term Impact of AI Advancements? (27:06) Is It Too Late for Startups to Enter the AI Model Space? (27:55) AI Development: The Exponential Rise in Costs (30:40) Will Cloud Giants Continue Acquiring Smaller AI Model Providers? (35:10) Is OpenAI Prioritizing AGI Over Practical Products? (48:29) What's the Biggest Overlooked Factor in AI's Future? (50:09) Concerns About a Future Where AI Replaces Human Interaction (54:20) What Will AI Do in Three Years That It Doesn't Do Today? (55:48) Quick-Fire Round ----------------------------------------------- In Today’s Episode with Aidan Gomez We Discuss: 1. Compute vs Data: What is the Bottleneck: Does Aidan believe that more compute will result in an equal increase in performance? How much longer do we have before it becomes a case of diminishing returns? What does Aidan mean when he says “he has changed his mind massively on the role of data”? What did he believe? How has it changed? 2. The Value of the Model: Given the demand for chips, the consumer need for applications, how does Aidan think about the inherent value of models today? Will any value accrue at the model layer? How does Aidan analyze the price dumping that OpenAI are doing? Is it a race to the bottom on price? Why does Aidan believe that “there is no value in last year’s model”? Given all of this, is it possible to be an independent model provider without being owned by an incumbent who has a cloud business that acts as a cash cow for the model business? 3. Enterprise AI: It is Changing So Fast: What are the biggest concerns for the world’s largest enterprises on adopting AI? Are we still in the experimental budget phase for enterprises? What is causing them to move from experimental budget to core budget today? Are we going to see a mass transition back from Cloud to On Prem with the largest enterprises not willing to let independent companies train with their data in the cloud? What does AI not do today that will be a gamechanger for the enterprise in 3-5 years? 4. The Wider World: Remote Work, Downfall of Europe and Relationships: Given humans spending more and more time talking to models, how does Aidan reflect on the idea of his children spending more time with models than people? Does he want that world? Why does Aidan believe that Europe is challenged immensely? How does the UK differ to Europe? Why does Aidan believe that remote work is just not nearly as productive as in person? ----------------------------------------------- Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3j2KMcZTtgTNBKwtZBMHvl?si=85bc9196860e4466 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-twenty-minute-vc-20vc-venture-capital-startup/id958230465 Follow Harry Stebbings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Aidan Gomez on Twitter: https://twitter.com/aidangomez Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vchq Follow 20VC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok Visit our Website: https://www.20vc.com Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/contact ----------------------------------------------- #20vc #harrystebbings #aidangomez #cohere #openai #venturecapital #founder #computing